Eva Svedmark, lecturer and director at UPL.
Photo: Ulrika Bergfors
The institution-wide organisation Centre for Educational Development (UPL) mainly consists of teaching and learning courses for higher education, workshops and seminars for teaching staff at the University.
Beside this, the organisation is also in charge of the institution-wide systems used in education, such as Cambro, Moodle, UmuPlay, etc. UPL also customises educations for members of staff according to needs.
"Our offerings at UPL are great and in steadily increasing demand, which we appreciate."
"Teaching and learning in higher education and professionalising the academic role of the teacher to promote learning is
an internationally growing field and that's why we have reinforced the centre with three new senior lecturers," says Eva Svedmark, senior lecturer and director of UPL.
Several large development projects
On the side of the regular organisation with courses and digital system support, UPL also takes part in a number of educational development projects such as digital written examinations and Room for Learning.
Currently, nearly 400 of the university's teachers pass through UPL each year. It is everything from in-service training of teachers at first-cycle courses and programmes, but also training in doctoral student supervision.
Among the ongoing projects, the development of digital written examinations is in prime focus at the minute.
Currently, there is an ongoing pilot project and the idea is for
the examination method to be implemented at the entire university during autumn 2019.
Ambitious education in sustainability for teachers
Another project being launched in the next year is the course Education for sustainable development. The course has been developed by UPL and the Faculty of Science and Technology and is now offered as a pilot course for teachers at that particular faculty.
"This is an ambitious education in sustainability from various angles and with basis in the United Nations's 17 sustainable development goals. In the future, UPL wants to offer the course to teaching staff across the entire University, as an essential part in strengthening first-cycle courses and programmes in this area," says Eva Svedmark.
Growing technology acceptance
Information and communications technology, ICT, is an important part of a teacher's qualifications now. According to Eva Svedmark, technology often offers methods to conduct teaching of high quality.
She can also sense a different technology acceptance now than a mere five years ago. For instance, nearly all programmes use a virtual learning environment today, which was far from obvious earlier.
Digital support for education doesn't just take place in online distance learning. A third area that UPL will work on in 2019
is a new set of instructions suitable for the new auditorium Aula Biologica, a lecture hall with architectural and technical solutions that enable flexible learning for larger groups and with greater variety than just lectures.
The auditorium will be completed by autumn 2019 and is being built on inspiration from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and several American universities with similar solutions.
Technology must serve quality of education
Even if new technology is fun, Eva Svedmark also sees problems with the technical development in education pedagogy.
"Technology should be used in education where it provides new levels of learning and enables or improves the quality of education."
"It's important that new methods and solutions have a basis in educational science before taking too great leaps into the unknown."
"Umeå University should absolutely be in the forefront of developments in this field in both Sweden and globally. Although, we should make sure that teaching is based on science, not just when it comes to content," says Eva Svedmark.
This article was first published in the magazine Aktum no. 2 2018.